Ichiro Takahashi
Overview Ichiro "Knife Edge" Takahashi is a central protagonist and member of The Quartet. At the start he is sixteen and twenty-one during the Bad Ending. His power, Needle, has essentially turned his fingertips and leg-points into incredibly sharp knives. Appearance Needle has given Ichiro an unusual physical appearance. It has compressed his body, giving him an unusually thin and sickly body width. Because of this, he is 6'3", yet weighs only 95 pounds. His skin is grayer and harder than an average person's. At age four, Ichiro's feet and fingertips fell off, being replaced with razor sharp leg-points and fingertips. He wears specially made shoes and gloves with kevlar in them. Ichiro's gray hair is waist-length and is usually kept in a braid. His eyes are also gray. Ichiro is almost always smiling. After the Bad Ending, Ichiro accumulated many nasty scars all over his body. His arms and legs are primarily covered in knife scars, while his torso has fire burns, acid burns, household appliance scars, and even a couple of gunshot wounds. A jagged scar is across his neck, like a failed decapitation. Another small one runs from his jaw to his cheek. Ichiro's right middle finger, the top two segments of his last two left fingers, and three inches off of his leg leg were cut off, replaced with sharp metal prosthetics. Ichiro wears his hair in a bun and does not smile. When Ichiro is in his mid-twenties, he starts wearing glasses. Personality As a teenage, Ichiro is a happy and bubbly individual. He is a personable individual, talking to anyone who will listen to him. He has a loud voice that demands attention and a habit to repeat words that he considers important. Ichiro is rather obstinate, though, especially when concerning his boyfriend, Tetsuhiro Aguni. It is very difficult to get him to change his mind or even to say no to him, as he clings to people and whines that he disagrees with. The Bad Ending changed Ichiro drastically. He is generally emotionless, letting his actions speak louder than his words. If he does display emotion it is typically fear. Ichiro is plagued with night terrors and vivd flashbacks, where he panics and hyperventilates and usually has to have outside intervention to end them. He is still kind at heart, but has a hard time expressing it. Ichiro is merciless to those he deems unworthy. Abilities Needle is a power held by Ichiro. It has drastically changed his body, replacing his feet and fingertips with razor sharp points. His body was also compressed and hardened slightly, so his organs are smaller than that of an average person's. His reduced weight and odd proportions allow him to "cut through the air" easily, making him very fast. However, because of this, he is also weaker than the average person, being able to lift only seven pounds if he strains himself. Ichiro has trained himself to be very flexible, so his leg can reach many points that others cannot. If Ichiro desired, he could very easily kill someone by driving his limbs through them. Life Events Kentaro and Airi Takahashi adopted Ichiro one December 30th, while he was only a few weeks old. It is unknown who Ichiro's biological parents were or why he was put up for adoption. Kentaro and Airi raised him lovingly and Ichiro was a happy child. Starting at age three, he became very sickly, his feet and fingertips slowly starting to fall off. He had to spend a good portion of his young childhood in a wheelchair. However, at age four, when his points were finally done forming, Ichiro quickly took to his new situation. From a young age he always made sure to train his body. Ichiro was so overly hyper that some people found it difficult to be around him, so he did not make many serious friends, yet he always seemed to have someone to talk to. Upon entering a high school for heroes, Ichiro became quick friends with Kiriko Sanuki, Haruki Shimizu, and Yoshihiro Ugaki. They decided to form The Quartet. It was at this time that Ichiro became acquainted with Tetsuhiro Aguni, who had been stalking Kiriko Sanuki for years. It became a mission of his to befriend Tetsuhiro and get him to stop stalking Kiriko. After quite a lot of effort, Ichiro befriended Tetsuhiro and even fell for him. To his surprise, Tetsuhiro fell in love with him and they started to date. Ichiro got through high school and the first six months of being a hero quite happily. However, six months after his graduation, Ichiro was kidnapped by villains. Once a week, Ichiro was tortured on live television. He was tortured plenty off-screen as well, both mentally and physically, though primarily physically. Unspeakable traumas were inflicted upon him. For example, part of his fingers were cut off and used to cut his neck and cheek. Worse still, a part of his leg was cut off and used to kill his kidnapped parents. Over six months, Ichiro's mind wore down and he no longer believed in the hero system. It is not that he hated heroes, he just considered them to weak to deal with villains with murderous intent. At this time Ichiro decided to become a vigilante, killing villains so no more heroes would have to go through what he did. Ichiro got his chance. One day, six months into his torture, the villains decided that all of the fight was out of him, so they loosened his restraints. They were wrong, though. Ichiro broke out and killed everyone he could find. He did not go to a hospital or the police. Instead he ended up passing out in a random alleyway. Ichiro's half-dead body was found by some neighborhood children, who recognized him from television. They took him to a community leader, Eriko Kizakura, who's granddaughter had been killed by a villain. She called a local doctor and some of her neighbors. Together, they just barely managed to save Ichiro's life. The neighborhood Ichiro stumbled in was poor and frequently attacked by villains. Despite this, heroes never came. After hearing Ichiro's vigilante beliefs, the neighborhood decided as a whole to take care of him and keep him secret. They would treat his wounds and feed him. In turn, he would keep their neighborhood safe and kill the villains that ruined their lives. This was how Ichiro started his career as the Villain Killer. He'd track down villains with murderous intent and drive his fingers through their skulls. It was difficult for him to find murderous villains, but he found around two a month. During his second month he coincidentally ran into Yoshihiro Ugaki, another ex-Quartet member. He had become a mafioso and had gained enough rank to pull in a favor. That favor ended up being some crude prosthetics for Ichiro. Ichiro was disgusted by Yoshihiro and how he lived, but could not bare to kill one of his best friends. Besides, even simple prosthetics made his life a lot easier. Ichiro was the Villain Killer for around nine months, in which time he got shot twice by startled cops and was stabbed three times. Every time the doctor at home patched him up. Nine months in, Ichiro had a chance meeting with his boyfriend, Tetsuhiro Aguni, the first time they'd seen each other in quite a long time. As it turns out, Tetsuhiro was still very much in love with Ichiro and over the course of a night convinced Ichiro to come back to him. He could not yet, but Ichiro promised Tetsuhiro that he would face justice soon. Justice was served in the way of Mitsue Seki, a mafioso and Yoshihiro's direct superior. As it turns out, he was also behind Ichiro's torture. Ichiro meant to kill him, but remembered Tetsuhiro's words. In the end, Ichiro overcame his anger and took himself and Seki to jail. A bystander just so happened to catch the video and uploaded it to YouTube, where it went viral. The world called for Ichiro's release. They had seen him tortured every week for six months and just saw him take down a major mafia boss (after Seki was jailed, lots of evidence against him arose). There was no technical proof that Ichiro committed the murders, so he was released into Tetsuhiro's care. The rest of The Quartet returned as well. Ichiro healed. It was not easy and it was not fast, but he healed. Eventually he returned to being a part-time hero, even starting to teach homeroom at his old hero high school. It was good for him: he could be responsible for other people, while also being monitored by other heroes. When he was twenty-four, Ichiro Takahashi became Ichiro Aguni. He married Tetsuhiro in Australia, only the rest of the Quartet and a handful of other people being present. Several years later, Ichiro and Tetsuhiro adopted a child mostly blinded in a chemical accident, naming him Masayuki after Kiriko's dead older brother. There were ups and downs, but overall the family lived a happy life. Trivia * Ichiro is very proud of his hair and has kept it long from a young age. * After his torture, Ichiro only wears silk and sleeps on silk sheets. It's what's easiest on his marred skin. * Ichiro later becomes the homeroom teacher to one of Kiriko's kids, Shinta. Category:Male Characters Category:Characters